Land of The Blind: The Finer Points of Accessibility

It’s been a hot topic of debate among blind gamers in recent years. What makes a console game accessible? Should we contact developers of games and ask them to make games with accessibility in mind? There are even a few out there that feel all games should be made accessible. While I do of course find myself wishing I could play certain games, it’s impractical to ask developers to make each game with accessibility in mind, at least in the ways that some blind gamers tend to think. It’s not really feasible to have things like a verbal compass letting you know which direction you’re facing, or to incorporate a form of text to speech into menus, (and yes, these are some things blind gamers want developers to put into games). While these things would be very nice to have, it just isn’t possible to do, because of time constraints and resources. There are however, a number of things that are put into games that, in some cases have the added side effect of improving accessibility.
 

Stereo panning and positioning.

This is something that is incorporated into most games these days, but I remember when it used to be sort of a big deal. Good stereo positioning can not only add to the realism of a game, but can also act as a good navigational aid for blind gamers and help you to get your bearings a bit. I remember wandering around in Duke Nukem 64, tracking down enemies by the audio alone. It can also help to pinpoint objects you can hear, such as the save points and treasure spheres in Final Fantasy XIII. It’s one thing that a lot of people may take for granted, but in some cases it can make a game that much more playable.
 

Menu interface.

Now, this one’s interesting. Knowing where things are in menus of games is obviously just as important as playing the game itself. It’s good to know how an options screen is laid out, for example so one can change the settings to his or her liking. For the blind gamer, this usually involves getting sighted help to read you where things are so you can find them later. It’s usually a good idea to keep notes of menu layouts, especially if you don’t feel like memorizing everything. One aspect that can help out sometimes is a non-wrapping menu. What I mean by non-wrapping is, if say you’re at the top of a menu, and you press up, and nothing happens. This is because the menu doesn’t wrap, so you can’t move any farther up from the top, and any farther down from the bottom. If you had a wrapping menu, on the other hand, when you were at the top of a menu and moved up, you’d be taken back down to the bottom. This obviously makes non-wrapping menus preferred, since it can improve navigation especially if you know how many items are in a given menu.
 

Audio detail.

This is another aspect that has improved with gaming technology, though it’s still very important. A game with good attention to detail in the audio department can often times bridge the sometimes narrow gap between playable and not playable. Last time I mentioned the Pokemon series as a perfect example of this. From the sound of running into a wall, to moving up and down stairs, entering and exiting doors, all have sounds associated with them, true even in the GameBoy days of Pokemon. It’s these very slight details that push an otherwise inaccessible game I’d normally have to watch YouTube videos of to enjoy, to a game I can play and progress in like my sighted friends. Another great example is the punch out series, like I mentioned before, though the example I bring up deals with the latest game on the Wii. The audio detail is amazing. You can hear every little thing from the sound of the boxer’s fists coming at you to the sound of Little Mack dodging, to the sound of chirping birds signaling that your opponent is stunned. The Wii version also incorporates many verbal cues, which can be very helpful especially since many attacks are telegraphed by the opponent saying specific phrases. An already playable series made even better by small details such as these. It’s still kind of a shame that you have to point at everything in the menus, though, although you can memorize where things are with a lot of practice and patience.

These are just a few of the slight details that can sometimes push a game over the edge and make them playable. So if you were to ask a developer to help make a game accessible, remember, think smaller scale. Next week, I think I’ll talk about games that are designed specifically with blind people in mind, audio games.
 
“In The Land of The Blind” is a weekly column discussing the unique perspectives of a blind gamer geek.

About Mike

Mike Breedlove, AKA Stirlock, is Geek Life's resident blind gamer from California. While he enjoys most types of games out there, arcade style beat 'em ups and RPGs are his personal favorite genres. It is his firm belief that Snatcher is the best game ever made, and he still hopes, (even if in vain,) that whenever Hedeo Kojima announces a new game, it will be related to Snatcher. He's a fan of Nintendo's Mother series, and thinks it is a crime against humanity that an official translation was never made to Mother 3.

• View all posts by Mike →
• Blog